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hen I was getting in my car this morning to head out to work, my cel phone jingled in my pocket. The beautiful picture on the screen of unDorkMommy hugging my two kids told me it was my wife calling from inside the house.

“Hello, I love you” I said, quickly running down the checklist in my mind to try to figure out what she was about to tell me I forgot to do.

“You’d better come back in here” she said. “Someone needs to tell you something”.

Back into the house I went and there, waiting for me in bare feet, camouflage dinosaur pajamas, halloween costume shark head, red lightsaber in one hand and blue in the other, and giant crocodile tear on his cheek was my son. Apparantly he heard me shuffling around as I was leaving, quickly got out of bed, got his lightsaber dueling gear (red saber for me, blue saber and shark head for him) and sprang out of his room ready for an epic duel with his Dork Dad… who walked out the front door to head to work without noticing.

Now my son is not a drama queen like his sister. When there’s a tear on his cheek, it’s a real tear. I saw my little jedi there, eyes welling up, the quivvering lip and the sad little-boy-look on his face that would make Darth Vader go all soft. He knows that when I have to go to work, I have to go to work. He was defeated. He knew there was no hope for a lightsaber duel this morning, and he was trying really hard to hold back more crocodile tears.

“Daddy, I just wanted to hug you. I love you” he said, disapointment in his eyes.

If Darth Vader had had this little boy for a son, he would have come back to the good side way before any of that other business ever happened.